Before the Fire: Saturn-Apollo Applications (1966)

Image: NASA

In early 1964, new President Lyndon Baines Johnson called on NASA to declare its plans for U.S. human spaceflight after Apollo reached the moon. In response, James Webb, NASA’s second Administrator, formed the internal ad hoc Future Programs Task Group. The Group sent Webb a report in January 1965 that favored a post-Apollo program built upon Apollo hardware; specifically, Command and Service Module (CSM) and Lunar Module (LM) spacecraft and Saturn IB and Saturn V rockets. The plan aimed to squeeze the nearly $25-billion Apollo investment for all it was worth.

With the Task Group’s recommendations in mind, the NASA Headquarters Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF) established the Saturn-Apollo Applications (SAA) Program Office in August 1965. A month later, SAA formally absorbed Apollo Extension Systems planning begun more than a year earlier at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston and the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

In June 1966, the SAA Program Office described in a memorandum to SAA officials at MSC, MSFC, and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) an SAA program which it said would “continue without hiatus an active and productive post Apollo Program of manned space flight and. . .exploit for useful purposes. . .the capabilities of the Saturn Apollo System.” The memo – a snapshot of a program undergoing rapid, chaotic change – explained that the plan it outlined was based on proposals NASA had submitted to President Johnson’s Bureau of the Budget a month earlier.

SAA objectives fell into two basic areas. The first, Long-Duration Flights, would “measure the effects on men and on manned systems of space flights of increasing duration” and permit NASA to “acquire operational experience with increasingly longer manned space flights” so that it could “establish the basic capabilities required for any of the projected next generation of manned space flight goals (earth orbital space station, lunar station, or manned planetary exploration).”

The second area, Spaceflight Experiments, would emphasize space life sciences, astronomy, space physics, advanced lunar exploration, and space technology applications and development. SAA lunar exploration would support objectives proposed at the July 1965 meeting of space scientists in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The Falmouth meeting was one of a series of space science planning meetings that began with the interdisciplinary Iowa City meeting in 1962.

Image: NASA

At the time the SAA Program Office circulated its memo, the first Apollo lunar landing attempt was expected in late 1967 or early 1968. NASA had, the memo explained, ordered from its contractors 21 CSMs, 15 LMs, 12 Saturn IBs, and 15 Saturn Vs for delivery between 1966 and 1970. Most were intended for testing. The SAA Program Office assumed that four Saturn IBs (designated AS-209 through AS-212), six Saturn Vs (AS-510 through AS-515), and their associated CSM and LM spacecraft would remain unused after the first successful manned moon landing, and that these would immediately become available for SAA missions. Basic Apollo CSM and LM spacecraft would be modified to achieve new goals by the installation of “overlay kits.”

Apollo Saturn IB rocket. Image: NASA

Building upon these assumptions, the June 1966 memo described two possible SAA Program schedules. The Case I schedule assumed that no Saturn-Apollo hardware beyond that ordered for the moon program would become available before late 1968 and that only enough SAA missions would be flown to accomplish minimal SAA goals. Case I missions would not necessarily serve as a bridge linking Apollo lunar missions and a new manned program in the mid-to-late 1970s. Even with these limitations, the SAA Program Office envisioned that Case I would see 21 Saturn IB and 16 Saturn V launches by the end of 1973.

The more ambitious Case II schedule would see “an early extensive utilization of Saturn Apollo capabilities, with an earlier focus on a post-Apollo national space objective (such as a prototype of a space station or a planetary mission module).” It would see 26 Saturn IB and 17 Saturn V rockets launched from KSC before the end of 1975.

Both the Case I and Case II SAA schedules would begin in 1968 with missions AS-209, AS-210, AS-211, and AS-212. AS-209 and AS-210, 14-day Earth-orbital life sciences/crew training missions launched on Saturn IB rockets, would kick off the SAA Program. Their CSMs would dock for crew transfer and an orbital rescue test.

An Apollo CSM approaches an SAA spent-stage Workshop. Image: NASA

The third 1968 SAA mission, AS-211, would see launch of the first spent-stage Workshop of the SAA Program. The crew would detach their CSM from the Saturn IB S-IVB second stage that had propelled it into Earth orbit, then would turn and dock with a Spent Stage Experiment Support Module (SSESM) mounted on the front of the stage. In addition to docking ports, the SSESM would include solar panels for making electricity, an airlock for spacewalks, experiment equipment, and tanks of gaseous oxygen for purging and filling the S-IVB’s 20-foot-diameter hydrogen tank so that it could serve as a habitable volume. The astronauts would conduct biomedical and astronomy/space physics experiments on board the CSM and inside the SSESM and spent-stage Workshop for from 28 to 56 days.

SAA missions in 1968/1969 would re-fly experiment apparatus first flown on short-duration (no more than 2 weeks) Earth-orbital Apollo moon program test flights in 1966/1967. These would, the memo stated, include experiments in particles & fields, ion wake physics, X-ray astronomy, and UV spectroscopy. At the time the SAA Program Office wrote its memo, the first of these test flights, dubbed AS-204, was scheduled for liftoff in late 1966 with Mercury/Gemini veteran Gus Grissom, Gemini veteran and first U.S. spacewalker Ed White, and rookie astronaut Roger Chaffee on board.

The final 1968 SAA mission, AS-212, would see a CSM deliver supplies to the AS-211 spent-stage Workshop. It would then rendezvous with Pegasus 3, an 11-ton satellite launched atop a Saturn I rocket on 30 July 1965 . The AS-212 crew would spacewalk to retrieve meteoroid-capture and thermal coating test panels mounted on the satellite.

The Case I SAA schedule had the disadvantage of not permitting continuous rocket and spacecraft production and launch operations between AS-212 and the missions that would follow it. This, the memo explained, meant that Saturn-Apollo production and operations would “phase down” during 1969-1970 and need to build up again in 1971. Case I missions after AS-212 would occur from three to nine months later than in Case II. The SAA Program Office favored and thus provided more details for its Case II schedule than for Case II. For this reason, from here on this post focuses exclusively on Case II.

The first of four 1969 SAA missions, AS-213, would be a near-duplicate of the AS-211 Workshop mission. On the second 1969 mission, AS-214, a CSM and the first LM-derived Apollo Telescope Mount (ATM) would carry out a 14-day solar astronomy mission. The ATM would reach orbit within the tapered shroud that linked the CSM with the top of the S-IVB rocket stage. SAA flights in 1968-1970 would occur during solar maximum, when activity on the Sun was near its peak, so in general their astronomy programs would emphasize solar observations. The AS-214 CSM would then undock from the ATM and dock with the AS-213 spent-stage Workshop to provide resupply and crew rotation.

In June 1966, the SAA Program Office assumed that LM-derived ATMs, labs, and carriers would launch with and operate docked to piloted CSMs. Before 1966 was out, however, SAA planning evolved to include ATM, lab, and carrier dockings with spent-stage Workshops. Such dockings would enable NASA to build up capable interim space stations and provide experience with in-space assembly of multi-modular spacecraft.

The third 1969 mission, AS-215, was envisioned as a meteorology-oriented mission dubbed “Applications-A.” It would probably operate in an orbit steeply inclined relative to Earth’s equator and employ an experiment/sensor carrier based on the LM design.

Apollo Saturn V rocket. Image: NASA

The AS-510 mission, the final 1969 SAA mission and the first SAA mission to launch on a Saturn V rocket, would place a CSM into geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) for communications, biomedicine, and Earth observation experiments. The rocket’s S-IVB third stage, modified for the mission to permit two restarts, would ignite in low-Earth orbit to boost the CSM into an elliptical transfer orbit, then would fire again 5.5 hours later to circularize the CSM’s orbit at the GEO altitude of 35,870 kilometers.

Five SAA Saturn IB missions would fly in 1970. These would include a 135-day stay on board a spent-stage Workshop in Earth orbit, two resupply visits to the spent-stage Workshop as part of other missions, two solar ATM flights, a Biomed Lab mission, a fluids lab for studying weightless propellant behavior, the Applications-B Earth observation mission, and the introduction of an “Extended Capability CSM” for independent 45-day flights. Extended Capability CSM modifications would include long-life, high-capacity fuel cells for making electricity and water, an oxygen-nitrogen breathing mixture to replace Apollo’s pure oxygen atmosphere (this was a concession to space physicians, who were concerned about the health effects of breathing pure oxygen for long periods), and a long-life C-1 rocket engine in place of the Apollo CSM’s Service Propulsion System main engine.

The Biomed Lab would be based on the Apollo LM or a “refurbished Command Module.” The latter was envisioned as a used Command Module stripped of its heat shield and parachutes, fitted out as a small pressurized laboratory, and launched a second time on a Saturn IB with a piloted CSM.

LM Taxi lands near LM Shelter. Image: Grumman/NASA

Four SAA Saturn V missions would fly in 1970, of which three would voyage to the moon. These would be the first lunar missions since Apollo’s end. The AS-511 Saturn V would launch a manned mapping mission to lunar polar orbit. It would orbit the moon for up to two weeks, imaging nearly the entire surface. The AS-512 CSM would transport to lunar orbit an LM Shelter containing living quarters, supplies, and exploration gear (a small rover, a core drill, and an advanced sensor package). Once in orbit about the moon, the LM Shelter would undock from the CSM and land unmanned, then the manned CSM would return to Earth. Less than three months later, the AS-513 Saturn V would launch an Extended Capability CSM and an LM Taxi to the moon. The latter would land near the LM Shelter with two astronauts on board, including the first scientist-astronaut to reach the moon. They would explore their landing site for 14 days.

LM Shelter deployment. Image: Grumman/NASA

1970 would end with the unmanned AS-514 launch, which would place the first modified (“Mod”) S-IVB Workshop into Earth orbit. The Mod S-IVB Workshop was a step up from the spent-stage Workshop; it would launch with no propellants in its tanks and with its hydrogen tank outfitted with living quarters, supplies, and experiment gear. The four Saturn IB-launched SAA missions in 1971 would, the memo explained, support a one-year stay by a single crew on board the AS-514 Mod S-IVB Workshop.

In 1971, the AS-515 Saturn V would launch an Extended Capability CSM and an ATM on a 45-day mission to GEO to conduct stellar and solar astronomy, relativity, and space physics experiments. AS-516 (the first Saturn V built specifically for the SAA Program) and AS-517 would launch an advanced lunar exploration mission similar to the AS-512/AS-513 pair, and AS-518 would launch a second unmanned Mod S-IVB Workshop.

The four Saturn IBs launched in 1972 (AS-225 through AS-228) would support stays on the second Mod S-IVB station. One of these missions would also test Command Module modifications meant to replace Apollo ocean landings with cheaper land landings. Modifications would include steerable parachutes.

From 1972 through 1975, the memo explained, SAA missions would support a transition to an unspecified post-SAA manned “follow-on program.” NASA would increase its Saturn IB launch rate to six per year by 1973, and would continue to launch Saturn V rockets at a rate of four per year. The latter would launch four missions to GEO to conduct stellar astronomy, physics, and technology applications experiments (1972-1973), the automated Voyager Mars probes (1973), and a two-launch advanced lunar mission similar to the AS-512/AS-513 pair each year through 1975, bringing the total to six. Two of the GEO missions would include ATMs. AS-520/AS-521 would launch the 1972 lunar mission pair and AS-525/AS-526 the 1973 pair.

The SAA Program Office envisioned that ATM missions might lead in late 1973 to an SAA astronomy mission featuring a reflecting telescope with a mirror measuring from 60 to 100 inches across. This, the memo explained, might serve to verify the mirror design ahead of its use in planned orbiting National Astronomical Observatories. Such sophisticated space telescopes were expected to reach Earth orbit in the late 1970s.

NASA began the SAA Program amid increasing government fiscal pressures brought on chiefly by the cost of the escalating war in Indochina. NASA’s annual budget peaked at $5.25 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 1965, which amounted to a little more than 4% of the Federal budget. It declined to $5.18 billion in FY 1966. President Johnson submitted a $5.01 billion budget for FY 1967, of which Congress eventually appropriated $4.97 billion. Congress had slashed to $83 million the $270 million that the Johnson White House had requested for the Apollo Applications Program (AAP), as the SAA Program had become known.

By that time, the cost of the Vietnam War had soared to $25 billion per year. Nevertheless, for FY 1968 Johnson requested that NASA’s budget be increased to $5.1 billion, of which $455 million would be spent on AAP. On 27 January 1967, the day after NASA OMSF director George Mueller briefed the press corps on the planned ramp-up in AAP development, fire broke out inside the AS-204 Apollo CSM crew cabin during a test on the launch pad. Fed by the CSM’s pure oxygen atmosphere, it immediately became an inferno. A badly designed hatch trapped astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee inside, so they perished.

After the fire, NASA came under close scrutiny and was found wanting. Congress could not “punish” the agency by cutting the Apollo Program budget – to do so would have endangered achievement of President Kennedy’s geopolitical goal of a man on the moon by 1970, the goal for which the AS-204 astronauts had given their lives – but it could express its displeasure by cutting programs meant to give NASA a post-Apollo future. The agency’s FY 1968 appropriation was slashed to $4.59 billion, with AAP receiving only $122 million.

Under President Richard Nixon, NASA’s budget slide accelerated. The Saturn rocket production lines were shut down permanently in January 1970. At the same time, AAP became the Skylab Program. NASA Administrator Thomas Paine, who saw Skylab as a step toward a late 1970s 50- or 100-man Earth-orbiting Space Base, cancelled the Apollo 20 moon mission so that its Saturn V (AS-513) could launch Skylab, an S-IVB-derived Orbital Workshop (OWS) resembling the SAA Mod S-IVB Workshop. Two years later, in January 1972, Nixon called for new-start funding for the Space Shuttle, which became NASA’s main post-Apollo space program.

Work toward using Saturn-Apollo hardware in post-Apollo missions continued, though on a much-reduced scale. Apollo 17 (December 1972) saw the sixth and last manned moon landing and the last flight of the LM. NASA designated its Saturn V SA-512. On May 14, 1973, SA-513, the last Saturn V to fly, launched Skylab. An ATM for solar studies – the design of which was not based on the LM – reached orbit permanently attached to the OWS, and the SSESM was relabeled the Multiple Docking Adapter (MDA). (The image at the top of this post shows the Skylab OWS without the ATM and MDA; from this angle it closely resembles the SAA Workshops.) Three Saturn IBs (SA-206 through SA-208) launched three-man crews to Skylab in Apollo CSMs. The final Skylab crew splashed down on February 8, 1974, after 84 days in space.